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DIY Christmas

No recipe today people. My planned recipe for the week was a ginormous fail, which I’m sure had nothing to do with the fact that it was inspired by the scent of my shampoo, so instead I’m going to talk about some DIY Christmas gifts that don’t suck and that don’t take a ton of effort.

Why make your own gifts when you could just pop out to your local Target and load up? Well many reasons, for me, we have one income (which we are very thankful for) but it doesn’t stretch terribly far around Christmastime. Especially when you discover that half your basement is moldy, which leads you to discover that your furnace needs to be replaced RIGHTNOW(!) and oh apparently you might be in need of a new dishwasher. Even if that is not part of your reality like it is in our family, I think it is meaningful to make things for people that you know could be useful or fun for them to receive. And putting time and effort into making something for someone just feels loving to me, which in turn feels more Christmas-y to me. Also I am a nut and think that I can do all the things I see on Pinterest, which is so not the case.

Don’t get me wrong, I also spend my fair share at the store buying gifts that didn’t involve any of my skilled (ha!) handiwork. But here is a list of things that I personally made for my loved ones last year along with a short list of things that I think would be really cool to make. But you’ll have to wait until next year to see what my blood, sweat and tears are going into this Christmas.

I also made soap which is really easy (once I stopped being so nervous about it) and pretty fun. This was also something I gave to my husband and brother and they both told me they like it, which is a resounding endorsement in my book.

I obviously didn’t distill some rum with spices, but I got some nice rum and let it infuse with lots of fresh stuff and wow, this stuff was good and I really do not like spiced rum, I actually detest it, especially the stuff that has the pirate on it-yuck! But this stuff was nice, my brother kept sending me texts about it, something about keeping him nice and warm in the cold weather.

And everyone recieved some unhealthy treats including these crazy things

These are so adorable, but there is no way I’d be able to make anything that looks this amazing.

Well I hope this very long post made you think a little bit about maybe making something for your loved ones this year, or maybe it made you want to run to the store even faster?!

One more thing, I have officially been doing this blog thing for a year. I still don’t really know what I’m doing (obviously) but its been a lot of fun and I am truly grateful for all of you out there who read the crazy crap that I put on these pages. And an even bigger thank you, to those of you who have tried one of my recipes or been on of my guinea pigs. Thank you very very much.